The Sergeant at Arms walked up the aisle, removed the heavy gold mace from the table before the Speaker's chair. A hush settled on the House of Commons. A clerk spoke, in flat tones: "It is with extreme sorrow I have to inform the House that Mr. Speaker died this afternoon."
Captain the Rt. Hon. Edward Algernon Fitzroy was 138th Speaker in a line dating back to 1377; none had died in office since 1789, when Charles Cornwall took the last of the great draughts of porter with which he was "wont to relieve the...
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